Where Liberalism Is Alive and Well!

Day: March 3, 2011

If you are a frequent reader of this blog, you know that I’m not a fan of public opinion polls and especially horse race polls many months and years out from an election. But I have to admit that once in a while, I jump down in the mud when a poll shows very clear results. The latest NBC/WSJ poll probed potential voters about the budget battle going on between Democrats and Republicans and the results were pretty interesting. We’ve been hearing since the election how the “American People” want this or that from all spectrums, Democrats, Republicans, Tea Partiers, Firebaggers, Independents, Libertarians and of course a whole lot of bitching from the troll universe that doesn’t seem to like anyone or anything that happens in the world. One of the main memes of the GOP is the idea that the American people want to cut that deficit above all else, that is what the last election said so clearly to the wingnuts. So what did the people in this poll say about that…

In the poll, eight in 10 respondents say they are concerned about the growing federal deficit and the national debt, but more than 60 percent — including key swing-voter groups — are concerned that major cuts from Congress could impact their lives and their families.

[…]

And although a combined 22 percent of poll-takers name the deficit/government spending as the top issue the federal government should address, 37 percent believe job creation/economic growth is the No. 1 issue.

As you can see from the results of the poll, more people are concerned about job creation and economic growth than a deficit that Repubican’s don’t seem to mind running up when they are giving massive tax breaks and subsidies to the rich, but they scream bloody murder when the government spends money to employ people or pay unemployment compensation or help repair our crumbling infrastructure. Breaks for rich people, good….breaks for working people, bad. We all know that the Republicans are banking on the mindless, Fox News/Limbaugh/Beck crowd who really don’t trouble themselves with complex thoughts, but rather say and do anything their puppet-masters tell them. It is true that the GOP has that going for them, but in a presidential election year, you have to appeal to more than just the nuts in your party.

The Republican leaders have been outdoing each other with their crazy ideas about job loses, with Boehner The Orange telling us “So be it” in response to the projected loss of 200,000 jobs and recently Eric Cantor dismissed criticism that the budget cuts they proposed would eliminate an estimated 700,000 jobs. I have to give those boneheads credit for being honest about how they feel about working class Americans, they don’t give a shit about them. In light of this, I wonder how it’s going to play with voters in 2012? More from NBC on the poll…

The most popular: placing a surtax on federal income taxes for those who make more than $1 million per year (81 percent said that was acceptable), eliminating spending on earmarks (78 percent), eliminating funding for weapons systems the Defense Department says aren’t necessary (76 percent) and eliminating tax credits for the oil and gas industries (74 percent).

The least popular: cutting funding for Medicaid, the federal government health-care program for the poor (32 percent said that was acceptable); cutting funding for Medicare, the federal government health-care program for seniors (23 percent); cutting funding for K-12 education (22 percent); and cutting funding for Social Security (22 percent).

Those numbers, GOP pollster McInturff says, “serve as a huge flashing yellow sign to Republicans … if they are going to start to talk about changes to Medicare and Social Security.”

They really have their work cut out for them at Fox News/Limbaugh land to keep their drooling minions in line. Expect a lot of distraction from these folks over the next two years, abortion, immigration, Kenya, New Black Panther Party, Muslims, President Obama’s fictional apology tour… the list goes on and on. Now hopefully the Democrats will use this to their advantage and start pounding them now with ads and talking heads on television reminding the people what the Republican Party really stands for, millionaires and billionaire who are seeing record profits and paying little to no taxes.

The American People support unions and collective bargaining according to this and other polls. I have to give huge kudos to Ed Schultz at MSNBC for being the champion on this issue. And the rest of the nighttime gang at MSNBC are also doing great work on this. The next results from the poll show that the “American People” clearly support unions. In your eye, Scott Walker…

However, just 33 percent say it’s acceptable — and 62 percent say it’s unacceptable — to eliminate some employees’ collective-bargaining rights as way to deal with state budget deficits.

In addition, 77 percent believe public employees should have the same collective-bargaining rights (when it comes to health care, pensions and other benefits) as union employees who work for private companies.

So the Republicans are basically spitting in the “American People’s” eyes. They seem drunk on the little power they really have and overconfident, why else would they be dismissing job losses so quickly. They certainly don’t have to worry about the faithful, but in order to win the presidency, you have to appeal to more than just the far reaches of your party. This next election cycle is going to be the most interesting in my lifetime, for sure. Watching people in the Tea Party’s heads explode (figuratively) is going to be fun as hell for this blogger.